Friday, March 18, 2016

I've been playing a fair bit of Minecraft on the xbox since my youngest got it after christmas, It's a great time killer and really does show how sandbox gaming works. Exploring creepy caves full of monsters and tryign to get out alive with the iron ore and coal you need to get a good suit of armor made so you can explore wider and build a cool castle (or whatever lese you wish) is about as sand box as you can get.

I've been playing this alone, i know it's possible to play online, but I'm having fun being a noob and don't need to have more experienced players ruining the fun of discovery for me even if I do find myself asking my 6-year old how a certain doo-dad works in the game. I'm sure i'm lacking some of the fuller experience by interacting with other people but it's fun having no one lese kick over my sand castles at this point.

There's a lot of lessons in Minecraft for what could work in a sandbox setting for an RPG and that is certainly coming up in a future post but now I have to go get some wool to build a bed so I can have a safe place to sleep a few mountains over.

Friday, March 11, 2016

Just playing with alternate ways to render hexes for a hex crawl, here's test shots of the same generic layout with three different renders. It was quickly slapped together so the hexes don't line up perfectly so I was thwarted in putting a squashed hex grid over the sample for now.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

A encounter table Inspired by this post on elves at Elfmaids and Octopi. I agree elves should be made more of a nightmare or exotic menace than they have been generally presented many an RPG game and campaign. The Following is a minor contribution to that end.

Troublesome Encounter with Wicked Elves

1d50

1

A Spelte Vaettir Herald decked in elaborate Orachalcum Armor arrives to demand tribute that has been unpaid by the locals for decades.

2

An angry flock of blood drinking owls descends on a field during harvest while a half dozen Spelte Vaettir watch and wait.

3

A Spelte Vaettir Harvest Knight and a score of lesser kin we idling a host of exotic pole-arms escort a train of Drolde slaves carrying goods back to their domain.

4

A maiden and a Harvest Elf Green Jack engaged in a romantic triste.

5

A dozen intoxicated Harvest Knights on a rand are sweeping the countryside; anyone foolish enough to join in will likely be swept away and never seen again.

6

A Harvest Knight on a black steed delivers the body of a missing nobleman’s child.

7

Nearly a dozen Spelte Vaettir have stopped by a forest pool to bathe, leaving their arms and armor on the shore. All the gear is likely magical but will rust away as autumn leaves and vanish by the next spring.

8

A raiding part of Harvest Elves is racing across the area, woe to any who try to sate between them and their goal. The raiding party will be heavily represented by those of level in classes such as fighter, druid and Ilusionist.

9

A band of Harvest Knight and Green Jack are battling a larger but less prepared number of Rotwood Elves. Both will gladly except help but the rewards they offer may not be that they seem,

10

A Green Jack with a pair of Trow servants is traveling to a local village to samples the goods of the local ale wives.

11

A Spelte Vaettir bound in crude iron chains is being dragged along by a trio of trolls.

12

A pair of oafish villagers carrying piles of goods are pursued by a number of jeering harvest elves who will surly set upon them at any time.

13

A pair of Trelfs in brass leaf-scale armor guard a door in a hillside.

14

A Drolde and pathetic Drauth haggle with a small band of Boggarts over some Drolde-wrought arms and lowly Drausckap.

15

A Drauth slowly growing larger in a stone grotto surrounded by a thorn hedge.

16

A Drauth handmaiden skulking away carrying a babe in arms having left a false changeling in place in a nearby village.

17

A trio of beautiful Drauth Maidens will invite travelers to enjoy their company and passions for a night. All will probably go well unless one of their guests is foolish enough to depart with a token or flask of Drauth wine.

18

An entombed Drauth screams in madness and rage so loudly it can be heard above the ground.

Rotwood Elves decked in heavy (but filthy) robes and breathe-masks are spraying the wood with a mist of spores from strange bellows.

22

A Rotwood maiden is harvesting hens of the wood, she may attempt to seduce one or two human men back to her lair.

23

A crone seemingly talking to herself is gathering mushrooms in the forest. She is begin guided by an invisible Rotwood Elf.

24

A half dozen Rotwood Elf swordsmen will nto allow any to pass over a small bride across a stream without a challenge and contest. They will lose easily if the contest is not to the death, their gear is infested with spores that will sprout madly in 2 or 3 days consuming all organic matter it is in contact with (treat as green slime).

25

A small band of Rotwood Elves is tracking a thief who made off with a number of potions. They will split the goods with any who aid them.

26

A pair of fungus ridden zombies led by what seems to be a child is seen carrying armloads of goods along a remote trail. The child is a glamoured Rotwood Elf or perhaps a Drauth that has stolen some of their secrets.

27

Four sickly jaundiced elves seek assistance in healing a wounded companion. They bear a goodly amount of Drauskap arms (recently won in battle).

28

Rotwood Elf bandits in fungus laced trees will drop down foul grenades of choking spores and flesh-devouring molds to any who pass that will not readily surrender adequate wealth.

29

A stange languid Elfin Princess in procession with Mushroom Headed Bug-a-bears, fungus ridden dwarves, and mold covered centaurs who is waited on by seemingly sickly elfin maidens will attempt to add any who bother her to her ranks of servants,

30

An aggressive patrol of Rotwood elves accompanied by a fungus laced Treant and a drug-addled Traelf warrior will attempt to destroy or capture any in their territory who do not offer proper recompense for trespassing.

31

A pair of Moon-Elf knights mounted upon ghastly steeds are racing each other across the countryside, neither will appreciate interruption.

32

A Moon-Elf Magus and Crystal Sevitors leading a frothing Wamp back to a moon-gate.

33

A Moon-Elf exploratory party decked out in exotic lunar garb, sporting breathing tubes and a host of oddly devices is collecting terrestrial samples in floating bubbles.

34

A circle of witches engaged in an orgy with a number of Moon Elves will attempt to seduce any who stumble upon them but woe to those who join in as their blood will be spilled to nurture the children to be born afterward.

35

A large band of Moon-Elves constructing tripedal warmachines. They will be ready at the next full moon.

36

Molemen slaves recently escape through a Moongate with a smattering of Moon-Elf devices, they will attempt to barter a single device and knowledge of how ot use the Moongate to get gretater wealth (and likely be captured by Moon Elves in their own domain).

37

Moon-Elf Nobles visiting their Terrestiral Cousins riding upon palanquins carried by a host of molemen. They are guarded by a platoon of Moon Elves mounted upon Giant Moths.

38

Two Moon-Elf hunters are tracking a Mothman in the wood. The Mothman is actually a MoonElf lycanthrope of sorts they wish to capture alive. they may pretend to bribe terrestrial men into as siting them.

39

A Troop of Moon-elves setting up elaborate lunar cannons to blast their way into a gate leading to a Hurdle-Folk hill.

40

A mysterious gateway in the wood leads to Moon-Elf graveyard on the moon. Woe to any who are not prepared to breathe the rarified lunar air or deal with the scampering Lunar Ghouls that lurk in the dark corners of the Graveyard.

41

A Liger stalks a pair of hapless lost Moon-Elves.

42

A small Band of Moon-Elves and Wood Elf cousins hunt a pair of Were-wolves. If they are bored or annoyed by humans in their way they may just add them to the ranks of the hunted.

43

A Troop of Wood Elves hunting for the woodmen who did slay their Dryad queen.

44

A score of a Sprites burst from a trunk of a tree. They will be hungry and seek to drink the blood of any animals they encounter for the next three nights. They can be calmed by Wood Elves.

45

A hollow-backed Elfin maiden sitting in a wooden glade will attempt to seduce any male who enter the glade. Her breast milk is poison that will enthrall those who drink. Elfin men and women are immune to the charms of this Wood Elf vampire (of sorts).

46

A wild hunt of Wood Elves and Enchanted Beasts led by an Oak Lord sweeps through the countryside all variety of men and animals are considered fair game if they lack Elfin charms that would allow them to join the hunt.

47

A Small Band of Wood Elves battles a cult of Witches emboldened by troublesome Drauth.

48

In a secreted glade a Wood Elf Master Archer with a golden bow challenges any bowmen he meets to a contest of archery, the winner is acknowledged to be the champion and will be given the golden bow and will be cursed to stand in the glade until someone can best them in a fair contest of archery.

49

A Trio of wicked Wood Elves is using a kidnapped maiden to hunt a Unicorn.

50

A troop of Wood elves will taunt and harry any who have trespassed onto their territory. They will use magic and be a nuisance but not cause violence unless met with violence.

Spelte Vaettir (Harvest Elves): Self proclaimed masters of nature’s bounty demanding tribute from the younger races. Harvest elves are tall (6-1/2 ft) and very slight with sliver-grey skin not unlike moonlight, despite their slight frames they are powerful and violent typically decked in autumnal colors of deciduous forest and fields.

Trelf: Tragic crossreeds of Elf and Troll that favor the elfin parent.

Drolde: Brutish magically fostered crossbreeds of dark elf and troll that despite their barely sentient nature are capable of fashioning exotic and exceptional large arms.

Traelf: though tot be a cross breed of Elf and Treant that protest the faierie domains but also possibly a stage in the Dryad/Treant life-cycle.

Drauth: A wicked, jealous,greedy, and gluttonous race of dark elves that primarily dwell beneath the earth. These shape changing folk are naturally gaunt (even skeletal) and workers of awful violence made even more terrible by their Drauskap (the magical craft of the Drauth).

Rotwood Elves: Not all elves of the woods are bound to the green some are jaundiced or grey servants of the riotous rot of fungus that would overrun the woods of the world. Their alchemy and magic is shaped by their intimate knowledge of the spores and molds of the wood.

Moon-Elves will appear to be nearly naked in their scant translucent robes and bizarre crystal helms. They are visitors from remote domains upon the moon and sport exotic devices and goods for trade and defense along with beasts and slaves from their homeland. They will treat men with any but the strongest of magical skills as simple brutes to be ignored or used at their whim; it is rumored they bend and shape men with wands that emit lycanthropic rays. (inspired to be weirder than i originally thought by this http://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.com/2016/02/moon-elf-of-yngarr-with-herhis-oculus.html)

Friday, March 4, 2016

The link to the original Dungeon Geomorph Collection file is currently misbehaving for me, I also tried to
edit the old one to re-post and it's password locked... surprisingly
enough I can't recall a password from over 5 years ago. I'll be
recreating this collection from original files and making the newer
edited version available soon.

gratuitous screen shot of editing in progress

The new version will be put on letter sized pages as well, while the original was meant to be used to copy and paste into other files I've realized the large page sizes may be troublesome to some folks so page change size coming along with some reorganization.

If anyone cares, would you like to see the backgrounds changed from the grey they currently are to fancier backgrounds similar to those used by Dyson Logos and in the smaller online posts here or kept grey?

Thursday, March 3, 2016

A quickie Random progressive dungeon set in a world suffering from the ravages of the Ogre Apocalypse.

The Setup: A desperate escapee from a den of horrors has let everyone know there is a witch under the old grey keep and there she is exposing captives to ogre bites and it milking them for their humors to brew a vast keg of ogre biles to poor in the river and inflict ogrism on everyone down stream !

How To play: use your favorite set of dungeon romping rules compatible with D&D and associated clones and roll on the table below. The DM should track and change the Threat Level (which starts at 0) as the game session goes one, some table entires will will tell you to raise or lower the Threat Level while a DM can use judgement to alter the Threat Level based on events in the game session. The table has 2 entries for each roll location and situation, if the party is staying in the same area just use situation column.

Threat Level0 roll 1d6 Each Turn PCs on the move, roll 1d6 each 4 turns in same area1-2 roll 1d10 each Turn, roll 1d8 each 3 turns in the same area3-5 roll 1d20 each Turn, roll 1d12 every 2 turns in the same area6-10 roll 1d30 each Turn, roll 1d20 every 2 turns in the same area11+ roll 1d40 each Turn

Ogre Haunted Dungeon of The Witch

Roll

Location

Situation

1

Tight Dusty Corridor

No Encounter

2

Barren Cell

All’s quiet (lower threat level by 1)

3

Drain Pipe, it’s a very tight squeeze but no Ogres will be squirming into here.

(lower threat level by 1 hidden in, if situation rolls with an Ogre occur ignore or have them waiting outside pipe)

Nasty Rat

(raise threat level by 1 if fight with rat over 2 rounds)

4

Smashed door hanging on single hinge. Passing or messing with this has a 2 in 6 chance of making noise (raise threat level by 1)

No Encounter

5

Cubby behind a soiled curtain. Good hiding spot for 2-3 people (lower threat level by 1)

Desperate Captive.

(not initially encountered in a cubby behind curtain but may show up on later turns to hide)

6

Forgotten Larder no-one been here in a while. Making noise here will draw lot’s of attention from hungry Ogres (raise threat level by 2 if noise made).

No Encounter

7

Recently hollowed out sleeping chamber fit for an Ogre. (lower threat level by 1 and only 1 for first 3 turns, after ward raise the threat level by 1 each turn until threat level drops again)

Lice, no immediate harm but in 1-3 days it will be hard to get rest which is a disaster for spell casters.

8

Damp Corridor

Torches Sputter (if any are lit), If torches were sputtering earlier they go out now unless fresh torches were lit.

9

A courtyard mostly sealed overhead by rubble, it may be possible to climb out here.

Bat.

(if there is a fight with the bat raise threat level by 1)

10

Narrow stair snaking around edge of wide shaft.

Only one manizied or larger begin may pass at a time, if there is a fight on the stair anyone hit has a 2 in 6 chance of falling down shaft and suffering 6d6 damage (saves vs fall at DM discretion)

2 in 6 Chance of hapless Ogre wandering by.

11

Pulverized corpse in hall. There is a 1 in 6 chance a coin purse with 1d20 GP was left on corpse).

2 in 6 chance of Ogre hiding nearby to ambush anyone it notices.

12

Sealed Prison Cell

13

A maiden can be heard weeping in the distance. Calling out to her will raise threat level by 1.

Minor Ghost

(only encountered if Crying maiden called out to or rooting about in Crypts)

14

Tumble of Rocks. Should be safe to climb over carefully but if anyone is trying to go fast there is a 1 in 6 chance they slip and trap their foot (STR check to free).

No Encounter

15

Lantern/Lamp leaking, someone in the party with a lantern/lamp will discover it is leaking and will use twice as fast as normal.If a fight breaks out while it is still leaking the owner will be drenched in remaining oil.

16

Privy. Good place to hide, Ogres seldom use them. (lower threat level by 2 if hide for over 1 turn)

No Encounter

17

Lowered Portcullis.

No Encounter

18

1-6 Gooms HD 2; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9

19

1-3 Ogres HD 4+1; AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 weapon (1d10+1); Move 9

20

Murky hall with recently smashed pillars. An explosion or fireball here will bring the ceiling down, maybe anything that brings down one of the remaining pillars will do so as well.

Anyone who has contracted Ogrism has a 2 in 6 chance of transforming into an Ogre (see Ogre Transformation Chart).

Corrosive spittle requires a save or blinded for 1-6 turns, even on a successful save suffer 1 hp damage a round unless washed off. The spittle has a 33% chance of causing the victim to b exposedto Ogrism.

About Me

A RPG player who thinks he has something to share. Discovered wargaming at the age of 9 or so thanks to Avalon Hill. Started playing D&D in the later days of the 70's as one of those annoying kids and currently games with spouse, family and friends.